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The Jeffco school board approved five-year contract extensions Feb. 4 for Montessori Peaks Academy and three of the 13 other district charter schools up for renewal.

The board voted unanimously in favor of the contracts, which also included Rocky Mountain Deaf School, Lincoln Academy and Free Horizon. The board also voted 5-3 to approve a 20-year electricity purchasing agreement with CEI Roofing LLC, which would place solar panels on up to 30 Jeffco schools.

Residents of a Golden neighborhood are suing the Foothills Park & Recreation District over the district’s new ward voting system and are attempting to gain control over an area park currently owned by the district.

The HOA is also encouraging its residents to sign petitions to secede from the rec district and is seeking an injunction to scuttle the ward voting system.

A yellow and blue score of Cub Scouts marched out into neighborhoods Jan. 30 and delivered empty grocery bags to area homes. Pack 554, which is based at Normandy Elementary school, will be returning to the same homes Feb. 6 at 10 a.m. with hopes of collecting thousands of bags filled with nonperishable goods to be donated to the Jeffco Action Center.

Heidi, the expatriate Iraqi pooch who was missing since Tuesday in South Jeffco, has been reunited with her new family.

The dog, a white-and-black speckled mixed breed, was adopted last year by Spec. Shawn Flint, 24, who is finishing a year-long tour with the Army National Guard in Iraq. Heidi was found about noon Saturday, having been spotted the night before by a local resident.

Jeffco Public Schools could cut 344 teachers and staff over the next two years to help reduce the district’s operating costs in the face of a massive budget shortfall.

A draft by the budget advisory committee recommends an 8 percent reduction in spending in the general fund, out of which most teaching positions are funded. The district could also cut about 94 full-time jobs in support services, 16 in the division of instruction and others in various departments.

A former South Jeffco middle-school teacher of 34 years recently was arrested on suspicion of propositioning an undercover police officer who was posing online as a 14-year-old girl.

Lawrence Haverland, who began teaching at Ken Caryl Middle School in 1970 and retired from the school in 2004, was arrested Nov. 5 by Pueblo police. The former teacher allegedly initiated the online liaison with the undercover officer on Sept.

Jefferson County last week settled a lawsuit surrounding the 2005 death of an inmate in the jail.

An unspecified amount will be given to plaintiff Kathie Sims, whose son Anthony was found dead in the jail on Nov. 1, 2005. Anthony was in custody and facing charges related to sexual assault on a child at the time of his death.

The Sheriff’s Office completed an investigation and ultimately determined Anthony’s death was a suicide, said spokeswoman Jacki Kelley.